Monday 19 February 2018

Florida and the Remainder of the Year

For the remainder of 2018, here is how the school shooting plays out;

1.  The kid.  I'm guessing about 48 hours after the shooting....most of his drugs have worn off, and he's sitting in the jail without any gaming 'set'....maybe for the first time in ten years.  His reality is starting to return, and he is contemplating all the screw-ups.  On a suicide watch?  Yeah, probably.  Zero chance he'll ever walk free, and about a 50-percent chance for a death sentence.  He probably doesn't remember much and says he was in a daze.

2.  The schools.  Well, for the remainder of this school-year, it'll be a hyped-up mess....sixty-percent of kids all anti-gun and social-meddling this to the ninth degree.  The opposite group....the kids who always oppose stuff, and the pro-gun kids....will be picked on.  With two weeks, some pro-gun parents will demand face-to-face teacher meetings and principal meetings.  Some teachers will bluntly push back and say they are anti-gun teachers.  This will set off a new mess that the school boards can't handle.  Ability to accomplish anything for classes?  No, don't go and anticipate anything getting done for the next four months.  Some teachers will be on a list to fire (the pro-gun folks as well as the anti-gun folks).  Various fights will occur and blame will be tossed onto both groups.

3.  The 17 House members from Florida who are Republican?  They run in November's election and they are screwed.  The kids will go against them and the wave will be very negative.  At least half of these seats are now permanently lost.

4.  Adjacent states?  Social media will carry this anti-gun wave across to other states and trigger in-house fights....the pro-crowd versus the anti-crowd.

When You Don't Have School Discipline

As a kid in rural Alabama, I don't remember the topic of suspending or dismissing a kid from school until probably the 10th grade.  To be honest, you just didn't have 'drama-types' who needed the suspensions. 

With all of this Florida-shooting hype, someone sat down and dug out the Broward County School Discipline Agreement

It's an odd piece...signed by local city/county judges, the state attorney general, and the Sheriff.  The school system has to comply with this local document. 

So in the midst of this agreement, there is a list of things that you will NOT be suspended or expelled upon....if they were to occur.  In these cases, you get a warning, a lecture, and possibly detention (meaning a couple of hours per week in study hall).

The list: all student misbehavior, disrupting or interfering with class or school functions, fighting in hallways or classrooms, theft of less than $300, vandalism (if less than $1,000), disorderly conduct (against other students, or teachers),  trespassing, criminal mischief (unclear what the heck this means), gambling, loitering, prowling, harassment, alcohol use or drunkenness, any possession of  Cannabis or drug paraphernalia, threats, obstructing justice with or without violence.

In most companies, the hint of any of these acts....would be enough for HR to bring you in and fire you on the spot. 

In the school?  Totally acceptable.  The worse that you might get is extra study hall. You could show up daily after consuming half-a-bottle of whiskey....no problem.  You could start a fight every other day.....no problem.  You could disrupt your science class daily....no problem. 

So I just look at this accepted behavior deal and can judge the school system as a failure.  The fact that judges and the sheriff signed off on it?  They are just as much part of the failed system.  They are themselves a failure.

You can draw up a long list of failures that brought this idiot kid to the event of last week.  The FBI failed.  The local cops failed.  The school discipline failed.